Your Zoom Lens isn’t Broken, Just Clean the Glass Out!

Recently, I dropped my Tamron zoom lens. As far as camera lenses go, it wasn’t that expensive, but being a DSLR lens, it still cost close to $200. Basically, I picked up my excellent camera sling (Amazon) without the door zipped shut. Apparently having the door closed is required for proper equipment retention.

After picking the lens up, I could feel loose glass shaking around, and see it when the cap was taken off. The lens quickly went in the trash. After all, I don’t want glass spewing all over my garage. For what it’s worth, I had my GoPro running on time-lapse, so I was able to produce a crude video of it happening, which can be seen later in this post.

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After initially throwing it away, I thought it might be cool to turn into something else (storage, a tilt-shift lens, who knows). I examined the glass further, and noticed that only the filter that I had attached had cracked. So besides zipping your camera bag, if you do break something, access the damage carefully!

I removed what was left of the filter (taking care not to cut my hands with the glass), then started wiping the shards that weren’t easily removable out with Ziess disposable lens wipes (Amazon). I had purchased these somewhat on impulse, but having something that I could throw away was great for little glass shards. Finally, I turned the lens over and cleaned it out the excess shards with my lens pen. Naturally, Amazon has quite a selection of these excellent little tools if you need one.

As mentioned earlier, I had my GoPro filming as I was working on a project that I wanted to capture a time-lapse of. I kind of wish I’d taken a higher frame rate.

So not really that interesting. I’ve been playing around with some zooming effects etc. As you can see, I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading – any similar experiences out there? I’d love to hear your story in the comments!